Context of '1964 and after: Cuba Creates ‘Polyclinics’'

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The Federation of Cuban Women (Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas, FMC) is founded to promote gender equality and the full integration of women into the economic, political, social, and cultural life of Cuba. [Partido Comunista de Cuba, 7/29/2006; Cuban Education Tours, 7/29/2006] The FMC, a non-governmental organization, will liaison with the Cuban government through the People’s Health Commissions to promote women’s health. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 32] Some of the organization’s members will serve as brigadistas sanitarias (health brigade members), helping polyclinic (see 1964 and after) nurses provide women with first aid, injections, and general health information. They are also responsible for seeing that all women in their district regularly have pap smears, and that all pregnant women do not skip any of their prenatal exams or check-ups. When Cuba implements its Family Doctor Program (see 1984) many of the brigadistas sanitarias’ responsibilities will be taken over by the family physician-nurse teams. The role of the brigadistas sanitarias will focus mainly on health education. They will also occasionally assist family doctors and nurses. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 66]

Cuba transforms its health centers into “polyclinics.” Each of the polyclinics administers health services to a specific geographical region comprised of between 25,000 and 30,000 people and serves as the point-of-entry for most patients. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 35] In addition to treating patients, the clinics educate patients by holding daily lectures on health care in clinics’ waiting rooms. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 67] The region served by a polyclinic is further divided into health sectors. Within these sectors, all people are seen by the same medical teams, which after 1976 are mostly comprised of a physician and nurse trained in the same specialty. So for example, within a health sector, all children have the same pediatrician and all women have the same gynecologist. The polyclinic medical teams operate according to a paradigm known as “medicine in the community” which aims to treat patients as a biopsycho-social being in their respective unique environments. The medicine-in-the-community model is also designed to focus on disease prevention by identifying risks present in the environment before they become health problems. By the 1980s, it is apparent that something more needs to be done to achieve these objectives. The polyclinic medical teams fail to establish close relationships with their patients and have little time for prevention. This shortcoming leads to the creation of Cuba’s Family Doctor Program in 1984 (see 1984). [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 35-40]

Cuba launches its Family Doctor Program. This new system is designed to make up for the shortcomings of the “medicine in the community” model (see 1964 and after) which did not create the intended close relationships between physicians and patients and which had failed in the area of preventative care. Under the new system, Cuba aims to put a physician and nurse team on every city block and in the remotest rural communities. The plan calls for the creation of 25,000 such teams by the year 2000, 5,000 of which would be assigned to factories, schools, ships, and homes for the elderly. The teams are charged with providing comprehensive medical attention to everyone in their districts, both healthy and sick. Each district consists of between 120 and 150 families. Special emphasis is placed on prevention and people are encouraged to exercise, eat well, and avoid unhealthy lifestyle habits such as smoking. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 35, 40-42] Implementing the system also requires corresponding changes in the country’s medical schools. All medical graduates except surgeons, nonclinical specialists, and future medical school professors are now required to complete a residency in family medicine before completing a second residency in a specialty area. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 30] After the Family Doctor Program is implemented, medical costs begin to drop. The reduced costs are attributed to decreased hospitalization and emergency room use, better health monitoring, improved patient fitness, and more effective prevention. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 35, 45]

By this date, Cuba has 6.0 medical assistance beds per 1,000 inhabitants and 1.3 social assistance beds per 1,000 people. The island boasts a total of 263 hospitals, 420 polyclinics (see 1964 and after), 163 dental clinics, 229 dispensaries, 3 medicinal spas, 148 maternity homes, 23 blood banks, 11 medical research institutes, 153 homes for the elderly, and 23 homes for the physically and mentally impaired. These facilities are distributed relatively evenly across Cuba, though there is a slightly higher concentration of beds in those provinces that serve as regional health centers. The Havana province also has a larger number of beds per capita because it is a national referral center. [Feinsilver, 1993, pp. 58-59]

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